Murray & Christine's record of their journey.
"A day in a car in an English county is a trip to a fairy museum where all the exhibits are live and real." Rudyard Kipling

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Great Missenden - 11 March 2012

Roald Dahl books have been enjoyed by many children, including our own, so when we learnt he lived in a village just a few miles from our own, we decided to visit.

The Museum in his memory is obviously geared towards children, but we enjoyed it too. His life was certainly interesting, for instance, we had no idea his first wife was an Oscar winner or that he was a pilot in the war and lived with injuries sustained when he his plane came down in the desert. He not only wrote many children's books, but also the screen play for the James Bond film 'You Only Live Twice'.

Roald had a writing hut in his garden, the interior of which has been relocated inside the museum. All the items were as he left it, including his chair modified to provide comfort for his war injuries.

Even better than the museum, is the delicious cafe attached. They certainly know how to appeal to the child in all of us, with a very tempting array of home made cakes, as well as more healthy options.

After visiting both the museum and the cafe, we used directions in a leaflet put out by the museum to explore the town of Great Missenden, where the Dahls lived. Many of the buildings were inspiration for places or events in his books.

Roald also liked to take his children for walks in the countryside around the town, another source of inspiration for his stories; another walking leaflet gave instructions to follow their steps on a favorite walk.